Directions for Article Submissions

We have an automated system for article submission. No human will see your
submission until you have submitted it under these guidelines. The first step
is to "apply" to become a writer. Once
you're approved, our automation system will then recognize emails from you and
know what of the many things it can do that you, in particular, are authorized
to do! ... Here, we're primarily focused on the submission of articles, and,
in particular, how you tell it to make links for you, insert images, and so
forth.

Submission Email Format

The basic idea is that everything contributors do is done via email. To avoid
spam and other burdens on our automation system, your editor will give you the
submission email address.

As indicated elsewhere on this page, your email submission will be processed
by an automated system. While a reasonably sophisticated bit of coding, its
job is to save humans time, and it, of course, is not a human; it only works
when your submission actually follows these guidelines. And, it will reject
all inbound materials that do not match the expected pattern.

The article's title is the subject line of the email; do not include
any other form of indication of "subject". Also, do not include
any other informaiton in the subject line, either.

The email must be in "plain text only" and not in a any
other format - some html may be included as described below. Use any editor
you want to develop your work, but it must be submitted in a way that does
not - cannot - include any formatting information. (More on this below.) In
particular, sending the body of your article as an attachment will likely
fail unless the material is literally in "plain text only" format.

Put two blank lines between paragraphs. If you fail to do this,
your submission will be one great big paragraph!

Do NOT include a by-line. Rather, we'll use your known email address
to match you up to our data. Just launch right into your
article at the head of the email body.

Please refrain from having any extraneous blank lines at the bottom of
your article. The system will limit you to two in any event.

DO NOT put a "less-than sign" ("<") as the first
character of ANY line unless you're using the special tag creation features!
They are described below as item 7, of course!

The system will insert images and make links FOR you,
as follows:

Put an angle-bracket in the first character of a line ONLY to get the
attention of the automation to properly create links or insert images for
you. The automation system MAY be able to recognize when such use is accidental,
however, best practice is to use an intentional technique to prevent use of
the < character accidentally triggering the automation of image or link
insertion function, such as putting a blank space at the start of the line.
(It is ONLY the < character at the start of a new line of text that gets
the attention of the automation system for special action in creating links
for you.)

Valid image insertion and link-creating directives allow you to easily:

Insert images for display. These may come from these following
sources:

Any image on the web via its URL, or;

A named attachment to your email, or;

An un-named attachment - if your email program supports this

Insert links to any resource. These may come from the following
sources:

Any web page, image or anything else found on the internet via its URL,
or;

A named attachment to your email, or;

An un-named attachment - if your email program supports this

These features are discussed below the rest of the description
of the submission system.

You may put small bits of html directly into the body of the article,
if you know how to do it, however refrain from putting such a link at the
start of a line of email. If necessary, just add a space to move it off the
first line. Your editor will not be happy with you if you put a lot of html
directives in there that upset the whole page but will be delighted if you
are adding things like bold and underlining and so forth.

Submit your article via Email and the automation engine will take
it from there. We are planning to update the engine shortly so you get an
email right back either confirming your submission to the editor or explaining
what went wrong and giving you a chance to fix it. For the time being, that
will also be sent to the developers so they can discover if there are any
bugs. Eventually, you will be given a link to your own private staging area
where your as-yet unapproved articles may be found following successful
submission. The automation engine will return to you a link directly to
your article for verification before publication. For now, the final bit
is a little more manual.

Documentation on Image Display and Link Creation Directives

These materials are arranged in what we hope is a simple order with increasing
complexity. Later materials build upon the concepts and details provided earlier
on. The total list isn't so daunting, though, and the software itself is amazingly
forgiving. For example, while you are advised to put quotation marks around
links, the software will most often figure out the author's intention without
them, though for file names that include spaces (never OK in URLs, by the way),
the quotations are required.

Insert an image you have attached to be displayed in the body of
your article by starting a new line in one of two formats. Most of the time,
we suspect, attachments will be named - typically it's the filename that was
used at the time of attachment, without any directory information. When the
attachment is named, this is the directive to let you place an image for display
in an article's body:

<image="image name"> optional text may follow
on the same line

Where:

"<image", exactly, begins the directive, and;

image name is the original filename of your attachment (not
including any directory information), and;

">" terminates the directive.

No provision is made at this time for position information other than
placement in the text. We hope to permit positional information to be
provided someday.

Quotations are optional unless the filename has spaces within it.

The equal sign is optional.

The terminating > is optional under most circumstances.

The above is case-sensitive; "image" must be lower-case and
the name you supply must match exactly all characters of the file you
wish to have displayed. Any extraneous text following the > character
(if included, or the image, otherwise) is referred to as the tail and
will be inserted into the resulting web page following the image directive.
(See attached-image detail and example.)

An alternative format is used for un-named image attachments, which we
presume will be quite rarely done because most email systems don't do image
attachments without including the original filename. This format is:

<imagex> optional text may follow on the same line

Where:

"<image", exactly, begins the directive, and;

x is an integer that matches the ordinal position
of your attachment, and;

">" terminates the directive.

Most of the particulars of the other form apply here. What's unique here
is that the ordinal position must be correctly specified. Note that attachments
begin at 1. It can be difficult to properly identify the ordinal position
of attachments and a few submission attempts may be requried (see the
system's email responses back in that regard).

Note that images may be used in any order and may be used any number of
times in the same article. (It's also possible to attach images that are
not used at all, though we request you discuss the matter with your editor
- perhaps you wish to provide alternative images?) All that's important
is that the "image name" given exactly matches the name given
when it was attached.

Insert a standard link to another web page or whatever by starting
a new line in this format:

<link text http://the.link > optional text may follow on the same
line

Where:

"<" begins the directive (and not "<image" or "<attachment"
which denote other directives) - use a space after < to gain separation
when using the words image or attachment at the start
of the link text. And;

"link text" is any arbitrary text string that will be the highlighted
portion of your link. Quote any link-text that uses "http://" (or "https://")
to prevent it from being interpreted as the link - the quotes will be
removed. Use double-double-quotes to retain quotation! And;

http://the.link represents here the URL - the link address you wish
to include. At this time, only http and https URLs are permitted. (Let
us know what other URL types you wish us to support.) A space must exist
just prior to the URL. The URL must not be quoted and is terminated
either by a space, or the end of line. The trailing > is optional
and will be interpreted as a part of the URL if the URL is unquoted
and there is no trailing space.

What's important here is that the URL is preceeded by a space and is
not inside quotation marks. The link is terminated by either end-of-line
or a space. Any extranious text following the link WILL be inserted into
the resulting web page immediately following the link. (See standard-link
detail and example.)

Insert a link to any arbitrary attachment by starting a new line
in one of the two following formats. As with image attachments (described
above), arbitrary attachments can be named or not. If named, the name is nearly
always the filename used at the time it was attached (without any directory
specification). This will be the most common circumstance. The directive format
is nearly identical to the format for standard links and is:

<link text <attachment="file name"> optional text may follow
on the same line

Where:

"<" begins the directive (and not "<image" or "<attachment"
which identify other directives) - use a space after < to gain separation
when using the words image or attachment at the start
of the link text. And;

"<attachment", exactly, signals to link to an attachment (as opposed
to a URL), and;

"file name" is original file name used at the time of attachment
- it is case sensitive. Quotation marks are optional unless there is
a space or > character in the name. And;

">" terminates the directive and, as with standard links, is usually
optional. And;

"link text" is any arbitrary text string that will be the highlighted
portion of your link. Quote any link-text that uses "http://" to prevent
it from being interpreted as a link - the quotes will be removed. Use
double-double-quotes to retain quotation! And;

The <attachment flag must not be inside a quoted string and a space
must exist just prior to the <attachment text.

The directive is terminated by the > character, and is usually
optional, as with the other directives.

The second form is for un-named attachments. It shares nearly all the particulars
of its named-attachment alternate. The format is:

<link text <attachmentx> optional text may follow
on the same line

Where:

"<" begins the directive (and not "<image" or "<attachment"
which identify other directives) - use a space after < to gain separation
when using the words image or attachment at the start
of the link text. And;

"<attachment", exactly, signals to link to an attachment, and;

x is an integer that matches the ordinal position of
your attachment, starting with 1, and;

">" terminates the directive, and;

"link text" is any arbitrary text string that will be the highlighted
portion of your link. Quote any link-text that uses "http://" or "https://"
to prevent it from being interpreted as the link - the quotes will be
removed. Use double-double-quotes to retain quotation! And;

The <attachment flag must not be inside a quoted string and a space
must exist just prior to the <attachment text. The directive is terminated
by the > character and is usually optional as with the other directives.

This directive is a bit of a combination of the first two described above
- a bit like an image that's got link-text. What's important here is that
the <attachment flag is preceeded by a space and is not inside quotation
marks. Any extranious text following the attachment flag WILL be inserted
into the resulting web page immediately following the link. (See Non-Image
Attachment Detail and Example.)

Insert an image by using a URL to the image by starting a new line
in this format:

<image="http://the.link"> optional tail of text

Where:

"<image ", exactly, begins the directive, and;

the equals sign is formal but optional, and;

"http://the.link" represents here the URL - the image address
you wish to include. A space must exist just prior to the URL. The URL
formally should be quoted which provides positive termination, however,
the quotations are optional, an in the event they are missing, the URL
is terminated either by a space or the end of line.

The trialing > is usually optional.

This directive is very similar to the named image directive, and shares
some commonality with the standard link as well. The primary difference
is of course that the image is to be displayed, so there is no link-text.
As with all of the other directives, any extraneous trailing text will
be inserted into the resulting web page. What's important here, aside
from the initial <image portion, is that there must be either an equal
sign or at least one space before the URL. As with standard links, the
URL is properly put inside quotation marks, but they are optional and
slightly change the termination details. (See Displaying
a Non-Attached Image Detail & Example.)

Some tips:

Note that there is usually no need to "end" any directive with
>, but it is a formalism we recommend - it reduces ambiguity.

Use a quoted string to put a URL in the link text (as opposed to the link
itself).

A URL or attached file not in an image directive which has no link-text
will result in the URL or attached filename being used for both the link and
the link-text.

To have a URL-looking link in the highlighted text of a link, simply double
quote the URL you want in the highlighted text. Those quotes will be removed
unless they're double-double-quotes!

Attached-Image Detail & Example

Here, the author wishes to put an image into their work which they have as
a file on their system. So, they attach the image to their article submission
and insert a tag in their article body in the location in wich they desire it
to appear.

Recall that the basic here is that you use a tag that starts a line that identifies
one of the images you have attached by the integer value that represents its
ordinal position. So, your first image attachment is known as <image1>,
your second is <image2>, and so on. But these tags are only valid if they
start a line of text! And again, you may have multiple attachments.

Recall also that you can use the same image any number of times in your article,
and in any order.

Here are all the types you can display this way:

bmp

gif

jpg (jpeg)

png

tif (tiff)

All images will be aligned right, and no option is provided for a different
alignment at this time. However, an update to this is planned for the future.

Here, two images are attached and are used in reverse order and multiple times.
First, an excerpt of the submitted article body:

But you know how I felt about this
one, of course.<image="big_frown.jpg">
And I was thinking I should be feeling better about it.<image="happy_face.jpg>
Yet, I didn't.<image="big_frown.jpg">

Here's what that excerpt would look like in the resulting html - for those
that know html:

But you know how I felt about this
one, of course.<a href="big_frown.jpg"
align="right"></a> And I was thinking I should be feeling
better about it.<a href="happy_face.jpg"
aligh="right"></a> Yet, I didn't.<a href="big_frown.jpg"
align="right"></a>

Standard-Link Detail & Example

Standard links have a link-text that gets highlighted as a place for people
to click. They also have a URL ("web address") that points to whatever
it is that's being linked at some other web site. So, in this case the author
wishes to pust such a link into their article body.

The fomat for doing this is really quite simple. A simple less than sign ("angle
bracket") as the first character of a line is followed by the link text,
a space, an then the link URL. The automation engine will correctly format such
an entry into a standard link and in the right place. The author does not have
to be concerned with line-wrap and similar issues.

However, there are a few "boundary issues" that can get the automation
engine in trouble and we hae easy ways of dealing with them. These are:

If the author wishes to use the word "image" (sans quots) as the
first word following the < directive, the word "image" should
be prefaced with one or more spaces (or a tab) such that it does not directly
abut the < character. This prevents an accidental triggering of the <image
directive discussed elsewhere in this document.

The use of a URL in link text can be accomplished by the use of quotations
("double quotes"). By quoting the URL or URL-like text, it ensures
that it will be a part of the link text and not be mistaken for the link URL.
The quotes will be automatically omitted.

If quoting in the link text, using double-double quotes leaves one set of
quotation marks in the resulting link text.

Note that there is no termination needed for the directive - the end of the
link URL is the end of it. Either the link text or the link URL may wrap onto
new lines. The automation engine will concatenate until a valid link is created
or an error condition is detected.

Here, several links are employed. First, an excerpt of the submitted article
body:

The quick <brown fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox
jumps over the<lazy dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quick_brown_fox_jumps_over_the_lazy_dog. And to see an
< image of a fox https://europeanfoxes.org/Fox_study_6.jpg or
read a discussion about this fascinating subject at <""http://TheTroyPress.com""
http://TheTroyPress.com just click the links!

Here's what that excerpt would look like in the resulting html - for those
that know html:

The quick<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox">brown
fox</a>
jumps over the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quick_brown_fox_jumps_over_the_lazy_dog">lazy
dog</a>
. And to see an <a href="https://europeanfoxes.org/Fox_study_6.jpg">image
of a fox</a> or
or read a discussion about this fascinating subject at
<a href="http://TheTroyPress.com">"http://TheTroyPress.com"</a>
just click the links!

Here we have four links and illustrate how the author touches on some of the
boundary conditions that need a little attention. The first is just a standard
link but the author uses some of the additional space on the same line after
the link. The second link is a standard link that wraps around a line. The third
link uses the word "image" at the start of a link's text, and the
fourth illustrates the use of double-double-quotes.

Non-Image Attachment Detail & Example

Non-image attachments - that are not links to other sites - are typically used
to share specially formatted documents such as PDFs. The automation engine treats
them very similarly to standard links with a few similarities to how image attachments
are processed.

These attachments have the same basic "boundary issues" that standard
links have, for identical reasons, so the implemented solutions are identical.
These are:

If the author wishes to use the word "image" (sans quots) as the
first word following the < directive, the word "image" should
be prefaced with one or more spaces (or a tab) such that it does not directly
abut the < character. This prevents an accidental triggering of the <image
directive discussed elsewhere in this document.

The use of a URL in link text can be accomplished by the use of quotations
("double quotes"). By quoting the URL or URL-like text, it ensures
that it will be a part of the link text and not be mistaken for the link URL.
The quotes will be automatically omitted.

If quoting in the link text, using double-double quotes leaves one set of
quotation marks in the resulting link text.

As with standard links, note that there is no termination needed for the directive
- the end of the attachment directive is the end of it. The link text may wrap
onto new lines but as with the <image directive, the <attachmentx>
directive may not! The automation engine will concatenate until a valid directive
is supplied or an error condition is detected.

Here, the author has attached public court documents in PDF format he wants
to make available to readers - it is the first non-image attachment and was
attached with filename hedges_v_brown.pdf. First, an excerpt of the submitted
article body:

Be sure to look at the details under standard links where the boundary conditions
are covered.

Displaying a Non-Attached ("remote") Image
Detail and Example

Images "sell" articles to the public. One very powerful technique
is to display an image on your web page that is hosted by someone else. You
do run the risk that the other party will change the link, but this doesn't
happen that often. And, so long as they're attribution, it's a fine thing to
do.

The directive to have the automation engine display your engine differs only
slightly from having it display an attached image. Having such images displayed
only requires that you indicate where you want the image (by the placement of
the directive), and then what the URL for the image is. This is done with a
varriant of the <image directive. Instead of giving an integer to indicate
which attached image is desired, merely a space followed by a URL is all that's
needed. It shares the same wrapping and termination characteristics with all
the other directives that take a URL - excep that there's no link text - so
please see these details above.

Here, the author has attached public court documents in PDF format he wants
to make available to readers - it is the first non-image attachment and was
attached with filename hedges_v_brown.pdf. First, an excerpt of the submitted
article body:

The "reporters" at MSM
took this image at right<image http://MSM.com/story/LieOfTheDay.jpg
and expect us to
believe that soldier didn't just kill that little boy.

Here's what that excerpt would look like in the resulting html - for those
that know html:

The "reporters" at MSM
took this image at right<img src="http://MSM.com/story/LieOfTheDay.jpg"
align="right"></a> and expect us to
believe that soldier didn't just kill that little boy.